Bloomberg View Gathers All-Star Roster of White Males

Bloomberg View, the forthcoming editorial page at Bloomberg News -- under the umbrella of the media and data company Bloomberg L.P., founded and owned by Michael Bloomberg, New York City's three-term billionaire mayor -- has finally released its list of high-powered editorial board members and columnists. It's so impressive! Some of them have worked for U.S. presidents, some for Ivy League schools and the rest have written important books. The View, which includes marquee names like Peter Orszag, Jonathan Alter, Ezra Klein and Jeffrey Goldberg, will put out two unsigned editorials every day. Predictably, though, most of the people signed on are white men, leaving us a little bit disappointed considering the opportunity at hand: building a team of anyone, from anywhere, for a highly influential company that made $7 billion last year. Find out exactly who's involved in a Friday edition of our media column, Press Clips, plus more on Michael Arrington and the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

Big Business: The names from the Bloomberg View press release are listed below, including the executive editor David Shipley and his number two, James Rubin, in addition to the editorial board and the columnists announced so far. Between them, their pedigree is untouchable, including, as previously mentioned, political advisers, speechwriters, academics, journalists, authors and more. As for diversity, the list leaves something to be desired.

According to our informal tally, which includes the 37 employees that follow, Bloomberg View will feature the work of 11 women, three men of color (one Indian man, an Iranian-American, one black man) and exactly zero women of color. The rest look like you'd expect them to, which is the sad part. (No, we don't necessarily mean glasses and balding, but that might not be inaccurate.)

David Shipley

James P. Rubin

George Anders

Max Berley

Lisa Beyer

Mary Duenwald

Paula Dwyer

Stuart Seldowitz

Francis Wilkinson

Peter Orszag

Jonathan Alter

Susan Antilla

Caroline Baum

Margaret Carlson

Albert R. Hunt

Jeffrey Goldberg

Ezra Klein

Stephen Carter

Noah Feldman

Meghan O'Sullivan

Sheril Kirshenbaum

Edward L. Glaeser

Michael Kinsley

William D. Cohan

Pankaj Mishra

Virginia Postrel

Ron Klain

Michael Lewis

Amity Shlaes

A.A. Gill

Vali Nasr

Simon Johnson

Paul Kedrosky

Laurence J. Kotlikoff

William Pesek

Alice Schroeder

Jonathan Weil

If it came down to the editorial employees of Bloomberg View being representative of their audience -- be it their target readers or the existing Bloomberg Terminal crowd -- it's possible that the make-up might be even more skewed toward the middle-aged white man. But in building a veritable dream team of contributors -- and with a budget rumored to be somewhere near unlimited -- maybe someone might've thought more of a varied personnel, maybe even making a concerted effort to push forward the existing state of media diversity.

As for ideological leanings, executive editor David Shipley tells the Huffington Post that he would be "comfortable going to the podium in City Hall and having Bloomberg View express something different," meaning that, in theory, this isn't just a huge PR team for the mayor's final ruling years:

Shipley, who previously served as deputy editorial page editor and op-ed editor at the New York Times, says readers will "see some times when we're in sync with the Times."

So it will lean left? Not exactly.

Shipley said Bloomberg View might be in sync with the right-leaning Wall Street Journal on other instances. The page may also align on occasion with the Financial Times, the Washington Post or none of the above.

In other words -- if we must -- according to Shipley, "fiscally conservative and socially liberal." Read the rest here.

Arianna in Charge?: In another bit of media news about institutional biases and influential owners, the announcement by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington that he's going to be both a high-powered tech investor and a high-powered writer/editor for and about tech investors continues to be analyzed interestingly, as it was yesterday.

In short, if you missed it, Arrington wrote a post saying that yes, he has conflicts of interests as a journalist, but because he's admitting them in detail, it's ok.

AOL followed by announcing that no reporters could invest money in areas they covered... except for Michael Arrington.

At Forbes, Jeff Bercovici argues that Arianna's policy is "patent nonsense." Arrington's move is as much a lunge toward cash as it is a power-play in the direction of his new boss. The problem, in Bercovici's opinion, which seems right on, is that Arrington's actions directly contradict Huffington's move to make the AOL properties viable and venerable journalistic institution, a desire she's demonstrated by feuding with and poaching talent from the New York Times. We'll see how long Arianna and Arrington last under one roof.

Nerd Prom Sucks: This weekend is the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, in which people with media jobs get to dress up and stand around celebrities and the people they're supposed to be reporting on the rest of the year. It's glamorous and goofy, but mostly disgraceful; Donald Trump is invited. If you're lucky enough to not be in D.C. this weekend, do yourself a favor and stay off of the internet, too. Seth Meyers is hosting and he's about as funny as your average Mother Jones copy-editor.